Palomar Pictures, Los Angeles, has signed director Ramaa Mosley for commercial and music video representation. Her last formal company affiliation was Hollywood-based JGF which she left this past summer, ending a stay that began in Feb. ’96.
Mosley has already wrapped her first job at Palomar: the Checkout.com spots "Crazy" and "Hockey Blood" via DDB Los Angeles, both of which are now airing. Another of Mosley’s notable credits is the music video "Higher" for Creed, whose CD was ranked #1 in Billboard at press time. That job was produced through Santa Monica-based Visitor shortly after Mosley’s JGF contract expired in August.
Palomar chairman/CEO Joni Sighvatsson observed that the signing of Mosley signifies where the company is headed in terms of up-and-coming talent. "We’re signing directors that fit in with the Palomar aesthetic, that have unique talents," Sighvatsson said. "Ramaa’s bio is so impressive and … she’s only twenty-seven years old."
Palomar president/executive producer Jonathon Ker concurred, adding that Mosley fits in with the company’s history of developing young directors. "She’s a very strong, young filmmaker," said Ker. "I just think she needed a change, to go to a place that could move her to the next level."
Mosley fielded offers to sign with various production companies. She contacted Palomar at the suggestion of Los Angeles-based West Coast rep Holly Ross of RED, who handles both JGF and Palomar.
At the age of 17, Mosley directed her first documentary. Entiled We Can Make A Difference, the independent film won an award at the United Nations Global 500 Forum. She was then hired as a script reader at bicoastal HKM Productions. While there, she indulged her interest in filmmaking by independently shooting some short pieces of her own.
Mosley further honed her film skills at Bennington College in Vermont where, as a thesis project, she directed another documentary, Two Seasons And Home, which was a study of Jamaican migrant workers living in California. After graduating in ’95 with a double major in photography and theatre direction, Mosley flew to La Paz, Bolivia, to direct a documentary about the Aymara Indians called La Vida, which was commissioned by the Dutch government.
Around that time, Mosley also directed a music video for an unsigned band called Moby Arlecchino which she said generated interest from such production industry players as bicoastal/international Propaganda Films, bicoastal The End and bicoastal The A+R Group. She ultimately chose Johns+Gorman Films (subsequently renamed JGF), where she spent the first year focused on music videos before expanding into spots with her first campaign for ESPN2 via Ground Zero, Santa Monica (now Marina del Rey, Calif.).
Mosley’s other credits include spots for adidas via Leagas Delaney, San Francisco; Rockport via Kirshenbaum & Bond, New York; Mervyn’s via Kirshenbaum & Bond, San Francisco; Powerade and L’Oreal, both via McCann-Erickson, New York; and Allstate out of Leo Burnett Co., Chicago.
"The very essence of my work is the desire to create a relationship between what you see on screen and the viewer," said Mosley. "For me, that has manifested itself in humanity and people, as well as [in] storytelling—both drama and comedy."
As an example, she cited the aforementioned Checkout.com ads "Crazy" and "Hockey Blood," in which, respectively, a mental patient and a hockey player approach the camera only to slam face-first against a glass barrier. "In each spot, the person comes up and presents himself in a way that’s violent, heartfelt and passionate. Those are the moments I’m always looking for in my work."
Mosley joins Palomar as it is in the process of an expansion. The company plans to re-establish its music video division and to launch a documentary division. (At press time, Palomar director Wyatt Troll was shooting a documentary for an undisclosed client.) Sighvatsson observed that this diversification is meant to set Palomar apart from the competition in the production industry. "We like to think we are going to create a different company," said Sighvatsson. "The documentary division is the first step in that."
Tamsin Prigge, a former freelance agency producer in the San Francisco market, also serves as an executive producer at Palomar. The company is represented by the aforementioned Ross on the West Coast; L.A.-based Jim Robison in the Midwest; and by New York-based Phillip Alden of Claire•Alden on the East Coast.
